In this issue: [Latest UN Security Council Resolution on Sudan Reaffirms R2P; R2P in the News; R2P and Darfur;]

I. Latest UN Security Council Resolution on Sudan Reaffirms R2P

1. REFERENCE TO R2P IN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION

II. R2P and Darfur

1. SUDAN: THE CHIPS ARE DOWN2. DEMAND THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL TAKES ACTION FOR DARFUR 3. THE EU MUST ACT IN DARFUR4. SUDAN: HRW LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER HARPER OF CANADA REGARDING THE CRISIS IN DARFUR5. CRISIS GUIDE: DARFURIII. R2P in the News1. WHY GENOCIDE IS DIFFICULT TO PROSECUTE2. SOMALIA: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RESPONSIBLE FOR LAWLESSNESS AND SLAUGHTER

I. Latest UN Security Council Resolution on Sudan Reaffirms R2P

1. REFERENCE TO R2P IN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION Resolution 1755 (2007)30 April 2007

The following is excerpted from a resolution that reaffirms the World Summit Outcome document, which endorsed the responsibility to protect, and Resolution 1674 on the Protection of Civilians, which reaffirmed the World Summit Outcome Document. In addition to extending the mission in Southern Sudan for 6 months, the resolution expresses "grave concern" over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, condemns attacks on civilians, calls on all parties to "put an end to the violence and atrocities in Darfur" amd also asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint "urgently" a new special representative for the U.N. Mission in Sudan, known as UNMIS.

Adopted by the Security Council at its 5670th meeting, on 30 April 2007

The Security Council,

Recalling its previous resolutions, in particular resolutions 1714 (2006) of 6 October 2006, 1709 (2006) of 22 September 2006, 1706 (2006) of 31 August 2006, 1679 (2006) of 16 May 2006, 1663 (2006) of 24 March 2006, 1653 (2006) of 27 January 2006, 1627 (2005) of 23 September 2005, and 1590 (2005) of 24 March 2005,

Recalling also its previous resolutions 1674 (2006) of 28 April 2006 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which reaffirms, inter alia, the relevant provisions of the United Nations World Summit Outcome document, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005 on children in armed conflict, 1502 (2003) of 26 August 2003 on the protection of humanitarian and United Nations personnel, and 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security, ()

The following is an online petition addressed to Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, encouraging him to pressure the Security Council to act on the situation in Darfur.

Dear Secretary-General,

The international community has a responsibility to protect the people of Darfur. But after four years the destruction and loss of life in Darfur continues without end.

Already 200,000 people have died needlessly, possibly many hundreds of thousands more. Over 2 million will spend another night sleeping in makeshift camps where disease, rape and death are all too common. Four million need humanitarian assistance, and nearly a quarter of them cannot be reached by aid. Attacks on the humanitarian operation are unprecedented. This cannot continue.

The grim four-year anniversary of the conflict will pass on 29 April, marked by Day for Darfur protests around the world but no action unless you insist on it to the UN Security Council.

2. THE EU MUST ACT IN DARFURBy Joschka Fischer The Guardian29 April 2007

For four years, violence and terror have ruled in Darfur. After many futile efforts, the EU must get tough with the perpetrators.

() The heart of the matter is this: the Sudanese government is either unable or unwilling to protect its own citizens from mass violence. In accordance with the "responsibility to protect" doctrine, adopted unanimously by heads of state and government at the UN World Summit in September 2005, if a state fails to meet this primary obligation, responsibility shifts to the international community, which may exercise various measures, including, if absolutely necessary, military force.

But military intervention in Darfur without the Sudanese government's consent is not an option today. Not only is there insufficient political will for an international force, but, more importantly, there are valid doubts about the feasibility and prospects for the success of such an operation. Even so, the international community still has options. Although it would be best if these options were adopted by the UN Security Council, the EU itself can and must act to increase the costs to the Sudanese government of its continued obstruction of aid deliveries and its delaying tactics on deployment of international peacekeepers.

That is why it is so important that EU foreign ministers heed the European Parliament's call for serious sanctions against the Sudanese government, whose key players were clearly identified by a UN Commission of Inquiry and Panel of Experts. The EU must freeze these individuals' assets and impose an EU-wide travel ban on them.

In addition, measures should target the Sudanese government where it hurts most: revenue and foreign investment inflows into Sudan's petroleum sector, and supply of goods and services to that and associated sectors. The EU and its member states' governments must enact legislation to ban companies based in their countries from direct involvement in Sudan's petroleum sector and in industries related to it.

Moreover, an investigation into the offshore accounts of Sudanese businesses affiliated with the National Congress Party, the ruling majority party in Khartoum, should be launched, paving the way for sanctions against the regime's commercial entities, which form the main conduit for financing its Janjaweed proxies in Darfur.

Such targeted sanctions would affect the power and privileges of the key players in this crisis. By imposing them, Europe would finally take a real step towards stopping the killing in Darfur and extending meaningful help to its people.

It is more imperative than ever that Canada and other members of the international community take the measures necessary to protect the people of Darfur in Sudan. Today, almost four million Darfurians remain reliant on international humanitarian aid to survive including two and half million forcibly displaced civilians and other victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. All remain at risk due to renewed Sudanese military offensives targeting civilians, the increasing fragmentation of the rebel groups which to a lesser extent are also responsible for human rights abuses and the almost complete lack of security in the region.

() Human Rights Watch appreciates the support Canada has provided to the ICC's efforts to investigate the most serious crimes in Darfur. As part of Canada's support for ending impunity in Darfur, we ask the Canadian government to:

Urge the Government of Sudan to cooperate fully with all ICC requests for assistance with its investigations including by providing access to all documents requested and interviews with all persons as requested. The Government of Sudan should also be urged to comply promptly with any summons or warrants of arrest that may be issued by the court.

Use Canada's influence with the African Union and other countries to encourage prompt and effective assistance in investigating and prosecuting crimes. Canada should call on the African Union to conclude the draft Memorandum of Understanding with the ICC which will provide a framework for future cooperation.

Provide strong public support for speedy and effective trials of those individuals who bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed in Darfur.

Provide support for public information initiatives to help Sudanese people understand the ICC process when it moves to publicly issues summons and/or takes other action on Darfur.Provide increased financial support to the International Criminal Court's Victim Trust Fund.We urge you to act firmly on behalf of all Darfurians who are now at greater risk of violence than they have been since they were driven from their homes three years ago and who are in dire need of international protection. The actions we are asking you to take will serve as an important signal to the international community that Canada is fully prepared to act decisively on its responsibility to protect. It's time for Canada to set an example in this regard that other states can follow.

Click here to get an interactive look at the crisis in Darfur. This interactive guide provides an overview of the conflict, including its historical and regional context as well as the international communitys response. In Chapter 5 of the guide, entitled he untested doctrine, Lee Feinstein discusses the responsibility to protect and how it is applicable to the situation in Darfur.

The Hague - As public consciousness of the grim situation in Darfur grows, the difficulty of prosecuting what is often popularly called genocide is becoming clearer.

For years, the term genocide was used to describe the ultimate crime. But that crime was rarely if ever charged, since international courts were too weak.

Now, the mechanics of international justice are modestly rising to confront man's inhumanity to man: take, for example, the International Criminal Court and the Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals here at The Hague.

Yet at the same time, the political sensitivity surrounding a genocide charge, which requires nations to intervene under international law, is creating friction. The cases of Rwanda, Bosnia, and now Darfur demonstrate this. ()

() UNHCR head Louise Arbour, who as chief prosecutor at the Yugoslav tribunal charged Mr. Milosevic with genocide, told the Monitor that courts should resist politics: "At the end of the day, there's going to be tension between peace and justice. By saying that genocide is a destabilizing charge [to the country accused], you politicize the justice issue," she said. Regarding Darfur, she said, "The UN embraced a responsibility to protect citizens from genocide. But in Darfur, [head of the ICC investigation Antonio] Cassese looked for three months with a large staff and could find no genocidal intent. He couldn't find a case."

() The Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals, the 1998 Treaty of Rome, the decision of the UN Security Council to empower indictments on Darfur by the ICC, the pressure on Serbia and Croatia to hand over war criminals have created pressure on regimes to change behavior, though not a preventive one.

For John Packer of Human Rights Internet in Ottawa, the world is in an "awkward moment" between the old Westphalian system of adjudication, "based on sovereign states and designed to create peace and stability between them, and a new developing model of international law."

The ICJ ruling on Bosnia "brings this awkward moment into relief," he says. "The court was caught willfully disregarding evidence showing Serbia's culpability, to avoid being put in a difficult spot."

2. SOMALIA: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RESPONSIBLE FOR LAWLESSNESS AND SLAUGHTERAfrica News30 April 2007

This is the most lawless war of our generation. All wars of aggression lack legitimacy, but no conflict in recent memory has witnessed such mounting layers of illegality as the current one in Somalia. Violations of the UN charter and of international humanitarian law are regrettably commonplace in our age, and they abound in the carnage that the world is allowing to unfold in Mogadishu, but this war has in addition explicitly violated two UN Security Council resolutions. To complete the picture, one of these resolutions contravenes the charter itself.

The complete impunity with which Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government have been allowed to violate these resolutions explains the ruthlessness of the military assaults that have been under way for six weeks now. The details of the atrocities being committed were formally acknowledged by a western government for the first time when Germany, which holds the current EU presidency, had its ambassador to Somalia, Walter Lindner, write a tough letter- made public on Wednesday - to Somalia's president, Abdullahi Yusuf.

()The long silence and the refusal even now to announce measures that might arrest this slaughter mark the lowest point in the big powers' abdication of the "Responsibility to Protect" mandate - adopted, with British leadership, at a summit-level meeting of the security council two years ago. The world's most impoverished people are now being ripped to shreds with no effort whatsoever to get the perpetrators to desist.

A huge campaign must be launched to press western governments to end this slaughter, which is almost entirely the work of those in control of the country. The European Union warned a month ago that war crimes might have been committed in an assault on the capital last month - in which the EU could be complicit because of its large-scale support for those accused of the crimes. Human Rights Watch has documented how Kenya and Ethiopia had turned this region into Africa's own version of Guantamo Bay, replete with kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and large numbers of "disappeared": a project that carries the Made in America label. Allowing free rein to such comprehensive lawlessness is a stain on all those who might have, at a minimum, curtailed it.

()Salim Lone, who was the spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya.